Ansy

Best drama of all time for me - everything was done to perfection-the decors and sets-from the teapot sets to the palaces and forests; the costumes and hairstyles fitting each character's personality; the plot and characters(finally,no stupid characters,everyone is smart and everyone evolves and changes with the events); every actor and actress gave it all under the guidance of this great director; the voice acting(every time I watch Bai Shuo ask Fan Yue about Mu Jiu's fate and I hear Bai Lu's own voice break-oh,I start crying every single time); the soundtrack and the bgms; and the mix of all genres-we had comedy,romance,tragedy,mystery investigating,time travelling and :) even a zombie infestation - what an adventure!
I am so happy it got 5th place in most watched dramas of the year.

I have just finished ep.7 and I have to say I couldn't agree more with your analysis of the drama so far.I was also close to dropping it by ep.3,but I told myself to give it a few more chances,and I like the investigating unnantural deaths direction. The one thing that does not convince me at all is Tan Song Yun-I've only seen her in Under the power and The sword and the brocade and she seemed more at home in those roles, the whole cute ditzy young heroine act does not suit her at all,she can't pull it off.
I'll just have to see where it goes from here.

Oh,dear,I thought I was the only one to notice this-started watching yesterday the first three episodes and all I was getting was this this mish-mash of copy-paste pieces from everything(Back form the brink,Fangs of fortune,Moonlight mystique).Plus,when I watch Hou Ming Hao i keep expecting to see him show more...skill,but I guess Fangs of fortune was really his peak,it's only going down from there.

Well,it's been a while,but off the top of my head, the main leads are completely different, Shen Wan in the novel is always so freakishly calm and professional, there was no hysterical crying at the fountain where they discovered the bodies of the little girls ; Yan Chi is an experienced and battle hardened commander despite his young age, that would never have allowed himself to almost freeze to death just so he could romantically be taken care of by the female lead(that did not happen in the novel), on the contrary, he was extremely intelligent and calculated, able to predict the emperor's moves and make preparations for everything ; and I don't remember exactly how all the villains died in the novel-I think the pretend blind guy did poison the emperor and then torched the place with everyone including himself in it- but in the drama it felt like all the bad guys killed each other leaving the main heroes morally clean and all their struggles meaningless. I just mainly remember everything made me furious - oh,in the novel it was Yan Chi who became emperor and Shen Wan empress,not the little boy, after months of battles and thousands of people's sacrifices

Many people have gushed about its mysteries, plots, and characters, but from my point of view,having watched years of CSIs, Bones and many others this drama was a huge letdown. Never mind the fact that they butchered the main characters into caricatures of the novel originals,but the production itself with its cardboard corpses and stupid procedures was beyond ridiculous that they weren't even funny. So if you are not fan of mystery type dramas this will probably bore you to tears.
As for Ao Rui Peng literally any of his other roles will show you what a great actor he is and was from his first steps into acting. This one however made me feel sorry for him, they gave him nothing to work with, or they didn't let him. If you want to see him it's better you go with Moonlight Mystique, Hero Is Back or the older Blood of Youth. I also absolutely loved him in Seven Relics of Ill Omen,but that one has mystery solving and some would say bad CGI-I loved it.
Hope this helps.

It changed too much from the novel,and the ending is one of the worst I've seen ,completely unrealistic and out of line,unfortunately.

I have just finished the series and scrolling through the comments I am surprised nobody talked about the wonderful Su Zhe, played by Qiao Zhen Yu, his looks,his acting,his mannerisms and best of all his dialect ( I only understand a few words of mandarin here and there that I caught from watching dramas - but his way of speaking caught my attention immediately, and it made the drama even better for me).
As for the other actors, I feel Gong Jun did absolutely nothing for his role unfortunately - the original actor from Blood of Youth had such a beautifully mature presence, such a quiet elegance and subtle deadly aura that Gong Jun could not capture if his life depended on it. Chang Hua Sen on the other hand went the opposite way and made his character so much larger than life that he completely outshone the original from Blood of Youth and made it hard for me to reconcile him with the villain Su Chang He who had to be put down for his actions ( I have seen the comments saying that apparently now the two stories need to be viewed as separate universes, which feels dumb to me,but whatever...)
It's a good drama, I liked seeing the various actors returning as their younger versions or as their own fathers, it felt nice to return to the universe and have that almost cozy familiar setting, but... it's still not Blood of Youth - and I miss my Lei Wu Jie ❤️

Love a Lifetime,Blue Flame Assault and Twilight are his most unusual roles.

can't remember exactly,I think it's definitely in the second part of the drama

In the book his character died in modern times and reincarnated in some historical time before a massive divine war which he knew about and it's why he is obsessed with surviving.

Definitely,it has everything-action,adventure,tomb raiding,supernatural,a bit of romance and best of all-the most amazing friendship between a group of people in a drama.

It's the best that has come out this year of its genre. The best ever,actually.

Xiao laoban niang=little boss lady?

It still doesn't explain why people kept praising Coroner's Diary 's cases,when they were utterly boring and silly,whereas here the suspense keeps me going one episode after the other....

I love Ao Rui Peng,and I wanted to love this new drama as well,but,oh boy,AvenueX was absolutely right in her critiques,it is beyond mediocre. You will be much better off just reading the book,if you can manage the 562 chapters.
I know many disagree,but after years of CSIs,Bones and NCISs the cases and the autopsies were just awful,childish and cartoonish.
The characters of Qin Wan and Yan Chi were reduced to mere shadows of the book ones,and I especially hated that Yan Chi was turned into her assistant who just writes stuff and stares longingly at her. Ao Rui Peng had nothing in the script to work with,after his wonderful performance in Moonlight Mystique and Seven relics of omen, and Li Landi had all of two-three expressions throughout the drama.
So many plot holes and illogical actions with the ending worst of all offenders leaving me with no sense of satisfaction whatsoever.
The only good thing I can mention is how beautiful they made Ao Rui Peng look,great clothes,hairstyles and makeup.
What a waste of talent and disappointment of a drama.......

Can't remember quite exactly,but I think prince Jin,Yan Che and Yan Qi were the emperor's sons,while Yan Chi,Yan Zhe and Yan Li are the sons of the emperor's brothers

prince Jin died because he had figured out the truth,as he was the one to find consort Jin's body (who had written the name of the murderer in blood before her own blood spread and covered it).Yan Qi dies executed by Yan Chi because he betrays their rebel alliance and he loses thousands of his soldiers.Yan Che I think simply gives up the throne,so yes,at the end there is only Yan Chi.

That's what happened in the novel.

I find him brilliant in almost everything,even in Beautiful time with you,he is support character,he loves the main girl and doesn't get her,of course,but boy,at the end I was screaming at my screen : Are you an idiot,how can you not fall in love with him?he absolutely stole the entire show!
I also loved loved him in Love is written in the stars,he has such a wide range from comedy to tragedy,from lonely emotional hedgehog to a fiercely loyal friend and lover.I truly think he is the most beautiful and talented Chinese actor of the moment.

Actually you should be happy you didn't read it before,the change in Yan Chi and Qin Wan's personalities threw me off so hard I was furious for 10 episodes,and I absolutely love Ao Rui Peng, I only stuck around for him.Igot over the anger and I am enjoying it for what it is now,but I do wish I hadn't read it first.